The docking computer has a really nice 2001 Space Odyssey vibe about it, with the Blue Danube and the gentle rolling, and whatnot. It's nice to imagine your pilot relaxing after the stresses of interstellar flight by just flicking the switch and letting the computer take over. Also, in the real world, it would give you some down-time to go and put the kettle on, or whatever.
However, I can't have that because:
<rant>
1. It smears my ship across the landing pad until it smacks into the railings at the side, costing thousands of credits worth of damage and sometimes destroying it. It does this EVERY SINGLE TIME (Type 6, Asp, ...). How the hell did that get past QA? This means that I need to buy shields too. Except I don't want shields, I want the cargo space.
2. It can't find the entrance unless it's got direct line of sight. This is derisory.
3. When attempting a vertical landing on an external pad, it occasionally puts your ship into entirely the wrong orientation before smacking it into the pad in a slapstick manner. If you're lucky, it has pointed you at the station so you can see the manoeuvre has gone awry and frantically try and break out of it. But if it's pointed you into space, tough luck.
4. It doesn't fly through the correct side of the docking portal (with the green lights).
5. I once saw it fly through a Coriolis docking port sideways, although thankfully it righted itself once inside.
6. I saw it wedge a Type 9 into the docking port of the station I was trying to leave, blocking it up. They wouldn't let me request docking permission again, until I'd left the station. There was a queue of NPC ships waiting to get out, and the station started blowing them up for loitering. I just managed to squeeze out through a tiny gap, but nearly lost my ship and cargo.
Seriously, the docking computer has been crap in every version of Elite I ever played, except the one where it did the cop-out hyperspace animation and teleported you inside, I can't remember which platform that was. If you can't write a decent one then I'm sure the open source community would be delighted to do it for you.
</rant>
Might I suggest a simple Unity project which simulates the scenario, and get people to try and write the computer?
However, I can't have that because:
<rant>
1. It smears my ship across the landing pad until it smacks into the railings at the side, costing thousands of credits worth of damage and sometimes destroying it. It does this EVERY SINGLE TIME (Type 6, Asp, ...). How the hell did that get past QA? This means that I need to buy shields too. Except I don't want shields, I want the cargo space.
2. It can't find the entrance unless it's got direct line of sight. This is derisory.
3. When attempting a vertical landing on an external pad, it occasionally puts your ship into entirely the wrong orientation before smacking it into the pad in a slapstick manner. If you're lucky, it has pointed you at the station so you can see the manoeuvre has gone awry and frantically try and break out of it. But if it's pointed you into space, tough luck.
4. It doesn't fly through the correct side of the docking portal (with the green lights).
5. I once saw it fly through a Coriolis docking port sideways, although thankfully it righted itself once inside.
6. I saw it wedge a Type 9 into the docking port of the station I was trying to leave, blocking it up. They wouldn't let me request docking permission again, until I'd left the station. There was a queue of NPC ships waiting to get out, and the station started blowing them up for loitering. I just managed to squeeze out through a tiny gap, but nearly lost my ship and cargo.
Seriously, the docking computer has been crap in every version of Elite I ever played, except the one where it did the cop-out hyperspace animation and teleported you inside, I can't remember which platform that was. If you can't write a decent one then I'm sure the open source community would be delighted to do it for you.
</rant>
Might I suggest a simple Unity project which simulates the scenario, and get people to try and write the computer?
